Prior to the Iraq war, there was one blogging voice you could tune into, Salam Pax.
There are now somewhere near 40 or so. Some are pro-American. Some aren't. All of them, however, have their own unique view of the war and the future:
Healing Iraq
Riverbend
G in Baghdad
Ishtar Talking
The Mesopotamian
Iraq At A Glance
Hammorabi
Nabil's Blog
Iraq The Model
Iraq and Iraqis
A Family In Baghdad
Road Of A Nation
Sun Of Iraq
Tell Me A Secret
Kurdo's World
The Iraqi Agora
Shlonkom Bakazay
Raed In The Middle
Baghdad Update
Baghdad Dweller
Life In Baghdad
A Glimpse of Iraq
US Mistakes In Iraq
Rapid Democracy In Iraq
Iraqi Letter To America
Land Of Karda
Kardox - The Kurdish View
Kurdistan Bloggers Union
A Star From Mosul
Baghdad Girl (Probably the foremost Iraqi catblogger. Man, she LOVES cats)
Bubble
hnk's blog
Loser's Blog
Could some of these blogs be fake? Sure. They're pretty hard to verify, in a lot of cases. Overly optimistic or pessimistic? Absolutely. I tend to read them, when I do, with a grain of salt on either side. Like every other blog in the world, and MSM war reporting in general, I tend to think the truth probably falls somewhere in the middle.
Now, let me ask you something. Which blogs above do you think are more authentic or believable? The ones critical of the occupation, or the ones more optimistic? Do you dismiss some as propaganda and others as the truth laid bare? What are your criteria for those biases? I only ask, because I find myself doing it, from time to time.
And what does the New York Times think?
Read it all, and ask where you think the writer's biases fall. Or do you think there are no biases in the piece? I'm interested in hearing your take.
Posted by Ryan at January 18, 2005 12:26 PMThis is a good exercise. I find myself second guessing everything. Is his spelling so bad because he is Kurd or is he just PRETENDING to spell badly? What we need is the same kind of community that exposed Plain Layne.
By the way, that's a neat animated fly you have buzzing around your web site. how did you do that?
Posted by: Tim at January 18, 2005 02:35 PMThere's an animated fly buzzing around my Web site? Really? That's the first I've heard of it. I don't see it on my work or home computers. You sure you're not on acid?
Posted by: Ryan at January 18, 2005 02:39 PMI would think that the court martial of a US soldier in connection with the drowning of Zeyad's cousin indicates that Iraq the Model is either for real or you need to put together a major long-term conspiracy theory.
Don't let him gaslight you Tim. I see it too.
Posted by: Joshua at January 18, 2005 04:45 PMGuys, seriously, I see no such buzzing fly. This is really news to me. Is somebody fucking with my blog?
Posted by: Ryan at January 18, 2005 05:19 PMMaybe it's using a Flash plugin you don't have on your computer at work or something. Maybe you'll be able to see it from your machine at home.
Though of course, there is the larger question of how it got there if you didn't install it. Maybe the mu.nu folks are fuck'n with you.
Posted by: Joshua at January 18, 2005 05:31 PMWell, now this is just bothering me. I don't see any fly at home, either with Explorer or Netscape, and every plug-in imaginable should be installed here. Somebody's messing with my blog, and it's not me. I'd sure like to see the fly, though. It sounds like something I'd definitely do. Anybody snatch a screen capture and e-mail it to me? I want to see this sucka.
Posted by: Ryan at January 18, 2005 05:36 PMit doesn't show up on the screenshot and I can't see it on my home computer now, though it is 16 hours later, perhaps it was found and uninstalled.
Posted by: Tim at January 19, 2005 07:08 AMThe fly shows up on my browser too. (screenshot)
Posted by: Etienne at January 19, 2005 08:07 AMOoookayyyy, that's more than just a little bit creepy. I was envisioning a tiny, unobtrusive fly, nothing like THAT. All right, people, fess up. Who's doing that? And, please remove it. I know that a couple of folks have access to my blog via MuNu. Jim Peacock, I'm looking at you. Joke's over, folks. Please remove that fly, and replace it with a naked Salma Hayek.
Posted by: Ryan at January 19, 2005 08:22 AM
Stumble It!
